The present invention relates to a door handle for refrigerators and/or freezers for the opening of a door for a refrigerator or a freezer compartment having a handle which is fixable to the refrigerator door or freezer compartment door in a manner pivotable by a pivot support and is movable between an open position and a closed position as well having a restoration device for the automatic restoration of the handle from the open position into the closed position.
Door handles for refrigerators and/or freezers are subject to the special demand that they should permit a simple and low-force opening of the door for a refrigerator or freezer compartment which can only be moved with a very stiff motion from the closed position. Doors of refrigerators or freezer compartments as a rule stick in the closed position, which is not only due to the locking force of the magnetic seal, but above all to the high suction force which can arise due to the vacuum as a result of the air cooling. Doors of refrigerators or freezer compartments are therefore as a rule made as lever handles which are pivotably supported at the respective door.
The main function of a lever handle for doors of refrigerators or freezer compartments is the simple and low-force opening of the respective door. In this connection, it is a question of overcoming the locking force of the magnetic seal of such doors and, in particular with freezer compartment doors, of overcoming the high suction force which can arise due to the vacuum as a result of the air cooling. It has therefore already been proposed to open the doors not only by the pulling force acting on the handle, but to support the handle pivotably at the door and to connect it via a pivot transmission to a slider which presses against the door frame or the unit carcass to press the door open. The corresponding pivot movement of the handle is transmitted with a specific gear ratio to the slider so that the forces required for the opening are applied via the lever effect.
The handle is moved back automatically into the closed position from the open position by a restoration device, with the restoration device at times having to be robust since not only the moving handle alone, but also the lever mechanism connected thereto also has to be moved back with door handles of refrigerators and freezers. An unwanted noise formation arises in this connection on the opening as well as a stress on and wear of the mechanical parts.